Anything you wish you knew BEFORE 1st pregnancy/ baby?

[Nineteen88]

Hi all,

Very first mumsnet post here. My partner and I are very much in love and after our 4th mutual friends pregnancy announcement we’re now officially broody and talk about trying early next year.

So my question is- does anyone on here have any golden pieces of advice that they now have and wish they new before even just starting to try for their first baby?

If you were to be trying for your first baby again- would you do anything differently? Would you live in a particular size house, save a particular amount of money? Or even sign up to certain groups? Etc etc

Very much looking forward to reading the replies!

Luv newbie smile

I echo those who say be prepared for it to take a longtime ttc, or no time at all.

For my first we were fully prepared, properly TTC and it happened after a couple of cycles. For my second I'd come off the hormone contraception a few months earlier to regain my periods, regulate my cycle etc, but we'd been using other contraception and planned to keep doing so for at least six months or so, until we were in a better financial position. But fate took a hand and one split condom later I was pregnant.

@LittleTiger007 the study reported in this article found there were no complications due to the hormones in the combined pill.
www.parents.com/pregnancy/everything-pregnancy/birth-control-pills-dont-cause-birth-defects-study-says/#:~:text=A%20new%20study%20finds%20oral,The%20Pill%20contains%20sex%20hormones.

I came off the progesterone only pil and my gp told me it might take three months for my cycles to regulate themseles. I am glad she did as it gave me permission to chill for the first few months. We conceived on month 4.

Space out your support. The original plan was for my partner to have two weeks off and for his parents to visit in the second week. Due to local restrictions it was week 4 that they came to visit and that worked out much better. For us weeks 1 and 2 were a doodle compared to weeks 3-5 (onwards), in the first few weeks whilst she woke up a lot she went back to sleep easily and we weren't too sleep deprived, by week 3 she was having trouble with wind and it was when the colic symptoms started. It was hard to get her back to sleep and we were shattered. Parent in laws came at the right time and as we were settled with breastfeeding i was able to express so they could give the odd bottle when I needed extra sleep.

With covid, get family to visit when they can. My in laws came up in July before she arrived 5 days later we were placed in local lockdown. I had an afternoon at my mums a few weeks ago and days later we were put back under restrictions and had to cancel a visit by my niece.

Baby - when they are tiny they don't know how to poo or wee. News to us! When they do poo it can come out with considerable force and go 60 cm /2ft!! We quickly moved to only changing on hard floors!